According to ET Retail, the filing was sourced from business intelligence platform Paper.vc, and reveals that Tencent holds 4-5% stake in Flipkart, where US-based Walmart is the largest shareholder with over 80% stake. Moreover, the funding might be part of the broader Walmart-led investment of USD 1.2 billion announced in July 2020. However, Flipkart declined to comment regarding this subject.
This comes at a time when India has been taking multiple steps to limit China’s influence on the economy, including changing foreign direct investment (FDI) rules, especially when it results in strategic influence. Therefore, among the total 224 Chinese apps banned in India so far, the government has banned other products of Tencent such as PUBG Mobile Lite, WeChat Reading, WeChat Work, and Tencent Weiyun.
Furthermore, it was reported that Chinese investment in Indian startups jumped to almost USD 4 billion in 2019, compared to around USD 2 billion in 2018. Apart from Tencent, Alibaba Group is the other large strategic Chinese investor in India and its portfolio includes Paytm, and Bigbasket, ET Retail stated.
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